Browsing: constitutional rights

With the news of the former National Security Agency’s (NSA) Edward Snowden being granted asylum in Russia, WNYC thought it would be interesting to go Brighton Beach to get reactions from former residents of Russia and Soviet Union. For those who haven’t been closely following the story, Snowden, 29, was a former technical assistant for…

A bill that would release FEMA funds to houses of worship damaged by Superstorm Sandy has been stalled in the Senate since last March. The Jewish Daily Forward is reporting that because of the holdup, many religious institutions are left waiting before they can proceed with any more repairs. Late last February, we reported that…

BETWEEN THE LINES: What we have in Congress — to paraphrase the iconic line from “Cool Hand Luke” — is a failure to legislate. That was quite evident last week after the Senate failed to expand existing gun laws without infringing on the Second Amendment. On top of everything else, because of undue filibustering rules,…

BETWEEN THE LINES: When I wrote my first column about gun violence in the wake of the fatal Columbine shootings years ago, I knew it wouldn’t be the last. Similar incidents happened before and were likely to happen again. I’ve written seven since then. Here’s number eight. By now, I thought, Congress would at least have…

BETWEEN THE LINES: When Mitt Romney became the Republican’s designated presidential nominee following his victories in the spring primaries, the party’s conservative wing seemed as lukewarm about the former governor as they were four years ago for maverick Senator John McCain. In a calculated move to counterbalance his moderate credentials, and emulating what McCain did four…

BETWEEN THE LINES: Numerous artists and performers have been honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. None of them, however, or any performer for that matter, has ever had the distinction of having an extensive exhibit at the National Constitution Center (NCC). After almost three years at the Rock and Roll…

State Senator Marty Golden doesn’t want you killing kittens with taxpayer dollars. Or making angels weep. And he certainly doesn’t want you going blind. That’s why Golden is calling on the Brooklyn, Queens and New York Public Library systems to establish stronger policies to halt access to pornographic websites on public computers in library branches throughout the…

A distinction to be proud of? We think not. Sheepshead Bay’s two state senators – Carl Kruger (D) and Marty Golden (R) – remain the only Brooklyn-area representatives standing against gay marriage in New York. Of the nine members of the Brooklyn delegation to the State Senate, seven have publicly stated support for same-sex marriage rights,…